showhouse October 2014 |53

The age ofenlightenment

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As halogen’s glow slowly dims,LED is fast becoming the

illumination choice for manynew homes. ROGER HUNT shedssome light on the latest offerings

TIM CROCKER

Philips AmbientLED light bulb

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need to know, how much light you will get from abulb, and it’s an easier means for comparing theamount of light you will get from one bulb versusanother. For example, a 60W incandescent produces700 lumens, but an LED equivalent lamp produces806 lumens from just 8.5W. Even an equivalentcompact fluorescent lamp uses 11W but producesonly 600 lumens,” explains Lees.Another important consideration is colour. LEDsoffer the choice of warm or cool white colourtemperatures, explains Michael Linsky, managingdirector of lighting solutions company Sensio.“Whereas LEDs were once criticised for producing acold, blue light, this is no longer the case. In fact,

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sold in the EU now have to carry an energy label toshow how efficient they are and include the lumen-to-wattage equivalence figure.” A lumen is a measure of the quantity of light emitted from a bulb. With non-directional bulbs, the lumens measure the total light emitted in alldirections. For directional bulbs, such as reflectorlamps, it is measured by the useful lumens, theamount of light coming out forwards from the front-facing part of the bulb. “The reason for the change of measurement on thepackaging is because watts only tell you how muchpower the bulb consumes, not how much light itgenerates. Lumens will tell you what you actually

According to the Lighting Industry Association,LED lamp sales are currently growing at around50% year on year. Indeed, with energy savings of 80% or more being achieved when comparedwith traditional incandescent or halogen lamps,and lifespans of at least 40,000 hours claimed, itwould seem to be just a matter of time beforeLED technology is mainstream.At Sylvania, part of the Havells-Sylvania Group,Edward Lees, strategic business unit manager of LED lamps, believes that LEDs more than pay forthemselves over their lifetime. “As a typical example,based on 1,000 hours per year burning roughly threehours per day, a replacement LED lamp will pay foritself in around two years and continue saving formany afterwards.” Although the capital cost still deters somehousebuilders, the price of LEDs is dropping and,having rapidly evolved, the lamps are now capable of offering good quality instant light, unlike compactfluorescent lamps, which are slow to start and onlyachieve full output over time. LEDs also provide greatdesign flexibility, making them popular with designersand specifiers. The lamps are now available asreplacements for most lamp types including linearstrips, spotlights and traditional bulbs such as theEdison screw and bayonet. “Because of the small size of this technology, it’spossible to create new lamp types which use LEDchips in ways not possible with other light sources. A single LED chip with an optic lens can create aminiature spotlight,” says Luke Thomas, seniordesigner at John Cullen Lighting.Edward Lees points out that LED technology iscontinually improving, with more light being generatedfrom lower wattages. “For example, the first LEDalternatives to GU10 50W halogens claimed anequivalent wattage figure of 8W, and were muchlarger in size than their traditional counterparts, butnew versions now run at around 5W and are muchcloser in size and shape to the halogen version.”The relationship between wattage and light output is not necessarily clear-cut. “In September 2013 new regulations were introduced by the EU givingguidelines on how lamp equivalence has to be shownon any lamp packaging,” explains Lees. “All bulbs

THIS PAGE

BELOW LEFT Sylvania LIFX lamps

BELOW RIGHT & THIS PICOsram LED lighting in use

OPPOSITE PAGE

BOTTOM LEFT Osram LEDLIGHTIFY – selecting colour

BOTTOM RIGHT MK ElementsCollection dimmers

RIGHT Osram LED lighting can beused in a wide range of settings

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showhouse October 2014 |55

opting for a warm white light will provide a yellowglow similar to that produced from halogen bulbs.”It is generally agreed that a good colourtemperature for use in a house or garden is 2700Kas this is a warm white colour. Another factor is the CRI (Colour Rendition Index), which givesan indication of how an artificial light source will reproduce colours in comparison to a naturallight source – daylight. According to Thomas, colour rendering is a characteristic that LEDs have traditionally struggled with, although recentimprovements have closed the gap on halogen.“The maximum value that can be achieved is 100but anything below 90 can make colours seem very

grey, lifeless and flat. The best LEDs will now have aCRI of 95 or above.”Craig Thorne, Philips Dynalite product manager atdistributor AWE, points out: “With every generation,colour rendering is improving. Current high-specLEDs are hitting 90% accuracy, only 8% behindincandescent. This, with time, will only get better.” One of the claims made by LED manufacturers isthat their product will last an incredibly long time,often 35,000-75,000 hours. “Some buyers may beunsure about the validity of these statistics but, if theproduct is used under the correct conditions, theyshould be accurate,” says Thomas. “As with all lightsources, LEDs will gradually degrade over time andthe light output will reduce. Values of life expectancywill be the time it takes for the LED to reach 70% of itsoriginal light output.” One of the main factors that can affect the life of anLED is the operating temperature. If the LED getshotter than the manufacturer’s recommendation it willaccelerate the breakdown and the LED will burn outmuch quicker than it should. Heat can also distort thecolour temperature of the LED.Probably the biggest issue with LEDs is thequestion of dimming. LEDs can be dimmed butcompatibility between the lamp and the dimmer is keywarns John Cullen’s Thomas. “Many manufacturerspublish a list of the dimmers and drivers that theyclaim their LED will work with and that they havetested. If you don’t use equipment that is from theirlist you run the risk of flickering or pulsing lights.”Flickering is a particular issue, especially atminimum dim levels. Another major problem is thatincompatibility between an LED lamp and dimmercan cause unreliable dim levels so the dimmer’sminimum brightness can range from ‘overly bright’ to ‘invisible’.Jason Ng, MK Electric marketing specialist, lists thecompatibility issues. “Firstly many existing dimmers,designed for incandescent or halogen lamps, will not

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“With every generation,colour rendering isimproving. Currenthigh-spec LEDs arehitting 90% accuracy,only 8% behind

incandescent. This willonly get better”

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app will enable features such as alarm linkedautomatic control as well as controllability of the LIFX lamps from anywhere in the world.Similarly, Osram is launching LIGHTIFY. This permitsintelligent wireless networking and control of smartLED lamps from a smartphone or tablet PC. Usingthe LIGHTIFY application, light sources can beindividually switched on or off, dimmed, activated fora defined period or adapted to personal colorpreferences. Users can also remotely accessinformation on the power usage of the lamps forbetter control of energy consumption.Steve Stark, Osram UK’s trade sale director, pointsto the fact that it has been said that “today we areselling our last light bulbs, as consumers know them”.He concludes: “With an evolving technology like LEDit’s difficult to say what the future will hold but, hereand now, there are some exciting new home lightingtechnologies about to be launched.”

CONTACTSAWE www.awe-europe.comHavells Sylvania www.sylvania-lamps.comJohn Cullen Lighting www.johncullenlighting.co.ukLighting Industry Association www.thelia.org.ukMK Electric www.mkelectric.comOsram www.osram.com/lightifySensio www.sensio.co.uk

work properly with the majority of LED lamps.Secondly, there is no standard across the industrythat regulates the performance of the dimmable LEDlamps developed by manufacturers. Finally, somelamp manufacturers are producing dimmers that areonly compatible with their own lamps, instead ofensuring the product will also dim lamps from othermanufacturers.”Unlike incandescent lighting, which, once turned on,requires the same current as long as voltage remainsconstant, the construction of many dimmable LEDlamps means that this is not the case when used witha dimmer. As a result, the dimmer can easily beoverloaded, which may lead to blown fuses, dimmerfailure or even fire.According to Jason Ng, MK Electric is addressingthese issues and its latest LED dimmer offerscompatibility with many of the incandescent, halogen and dimmable LED lamps from leadingmanufacturers. In addition, it allows flickering to beaddressed without replacing a lamp, by adjusting theminimum dim level using the product’s dimmer knob. Similarly, at AWE, Craig Thorne claims that withPhilips Master LED lamps, flicker-free dimming isguaranteed with all the main dimmer brands,although for best results a fully dedicated controlsystem, such as Philips Dynalite, is advisable.Control of LEDs is moving beyond simply controllingthe lamp’s brightness. Sylvania has partnered withLIFX, an internet kickstarter, to offer a wifi enabledLED lamp that can be controlled with a smartphone.This allows users to choose from 16 million coloursand to select the brightness and dimming levels oftheir LIFX lamps as well as create scenes. Soon an

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Read Roger Hunt’s blog www.huntwriter.com and follow him on Twitter @huntwriter

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BELOW John Cullen Lighting products andlighting schemes; Metal Cube and Oslo LED

MIDDLE LEFT Sensio LED kitchen lightingMIDDLE RIGHT Osram LED product range

BOTTOM LEFT John Cullen Lighting productsand lighting schemes; LED Luca

BOTTOM RIGHT John Cullen Lighting canoffer a variety of lighting solutions

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